Most optical fiber cables are comprised of a plurality of optical fibers. Because optical fibers are thin and fragile, such multi-fiber cables have various members along the length of the fibers for protecting the fibers from becoming bent or stressed, such as a buffer tube, an inner tension member extending along the length of the cable, and outer sheaths. The protective members reduce any signal loss or fiber breakage by limiting the amount in which the optical fibers are bent or otherwise exposed to external forces.
When the optical fibers in an optical cable are spliced or coupled to other fibers or components, the fibers must be separated from many of the protective members in the cable and routed to their respective splicing or coupling locations. Often, each optical fiber is separated from the outer sheaths, the tension member, and its buffer tube, so that only the optical fibers and their surrounding furcation tubes are routed to coupling locations for the optical fibers. The specific coupling location for an optical fiber can vary but is often a location in a fiber distribution shelf or a splice closure.
In routing the optical fibers in a cable to their respective locations, however, the unprotected optical fibers can become damaged. Typically, the individual optical fibers and their respective furcation tubes are bundled together within a spiral tube and routed as a group to the distribution shelf or closure. The optical fibers and furcation tubes can become intertwined with each other within the spiral tube and, at times, become so twisted that some of the optical fibers become bent, thereby introducing a signal loss or causing the fiber to break. The entanglement of the fibers within the spiral tube is therefore a problem when routing the fibers in a multi-fiber cable to their points of termination or splicing.
Because the optical fibers are intertwined within the spiral tube, they must be untangled and separated at the exit of the spiral tube before being routed to their respective termination points. A technician, such as an installer or lineman, must carefully remove each fiber from the tangled bundle so that none of the fibers will become critically bent. The process by which the fibers are unraveled is laborious, extremely time consuming, and inefficient. Consequently, a need exists for a device or method by which the fibers can quickly and easily become unraveled.
The problems with intertwined fibers is not limited to the above-described examples of a fiber distribution shelf or a splice closure. Rather, any situation in which optical fibers can become intertwined is potentially damaging since the fibers can become bent, thereby introducing a signal loss or causing the fiber to break. While the problem of fiber bending has been described with reference to fibers within furcation tubes, the fibers can frequently become bent within the buffer tubes. Also, the optical fibers need not come from a single multi-fiber cable but may alternatively come from more than one source, such as two optical cables, thereby compounding the problems of separation without damage thereto.